Late goal spoils Stockton's battle from big deficit

Wednesday

Feb 6, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The Thunder's up-and-down performance on Tuesday night ended in disappointment.

The Record

The Thunder's up-and-down performance on Tuesday night ended in disappointment.

Stockton fell behind by three goals and managed to tie the game, but it ended up losing to the Bakersfield Condors 4-3 in front of a crowd of 2,711 at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. It was a rare victory for the Condors against Stockton, which is 6-2-1 against Bakersfield this season.

Thunder coach Matt Thomas liked the fact his team found a way to get back into the game, but he was not pleased at all with the effort in the early part of the contest.

"I'm mad at myself because we weren't ready to play and we fell behind.," Thomas said. "We just weren't ready to go, and I can't put my finger on why.

"Some guys just weren't ready to play. And the end result is that we lost and come out of this without any points."

Scott Freeman scored the game-winning goal for the Condors (14-31-5) with 3 minutes, 22 seconds left in the game. But it didn't look like Bakersfield would need a late goal to win it after the Condors took a big lead.

Francis Verrault scored two goals as Bakersfield took a 3-0 lead early in the second period. The Thunder (24-18-8) finally began to get going 5:20 into the second when Eric Hunter scored on a power-play goal.

Justin Maylan scored his 18th goal of the season for Stockton 1:53 into the final period, and Max Boisclair tied the game 3-3 about six minutes later. Boisclair, who signed as a free agent on Jan. 24, has a point in six of the seven games he has played.

Hunter had two points for Stockton, and Verreault had three for Bakersfield.

The Thunder heads to Alaska for a three-game series against the Aces, beginning Friday.